The Emptiness of Earthly Gain

The book of Proverbs, along with the book of Ecclesiastes is the greatest compilation of divine wisdom that the world has ever known, and I would like to make a point about the first proverb that is listed in the book. Now there are a few verses before this one, but this passage is really the one that kicks off the long string of wise sayings that cover the thirty one chapters of the book: "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels" (Prov. 1:5). There is surely a good reason that the proverbs begin in this way, and it is obviously because Solomon, who was given such magnificent wisdom from heaven, knew the value of listening to others who had understanding. After all, he did say later in the book; "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety" (Prov. 11:14). In fact he wrote a number of proverbs in the book that are similar to that one. Solomon did not acquire the vast wisdom that God promised him in a dream, overnight. And he didn't acquire all of it directly from heaven either. In fact there is no doubt that much of the wisdom that he attained unto was gained by his willingness to listen and learn from others. This is how he learned the following powerful spiritual reality: "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Prov. 13:20). And he also learned that it was wise to NOT listen to a lot of people: "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge" (Prov. 14:7).

The thing that made Solomon so wise, and such a great teacher of wisdom, was that he actually LOVED being taught, and was always willing to hear someone to see if he could learn something valuable. That way of thinking and living was what motivated the following passage: "Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life" (Prov. 4:13). What he was saying in that verse is that we cannot afford to ever lose the willingness, the humility, and the desire to be taught by someone who has godly wisdom. And that was the mindset that inspired the following proverb from the book of Ecclesiastes, which was also written by Solomon: "Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished" (Eccl. 4:13). He knew and liked the ideal of favoring listening over speaking, as he also alluded to in his writing (Eccl. 5:1). James also ascribed to this way of godly thinking, saying; "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (Jas. 1:19). And we can finish off this article by applying the truth that we have read here to the saying of the beloved apostle: "For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (I Jn. 4:20) By the same token we can say, "How can we learn of God whom we cannot see, if we can't learn from our brother whom we can see?" Amen.